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Sexy Death

Frejrud: The Damiana Error era for me was constructive because it made me learn and survive through some dark and heavy years. I spent lots of time on that album, so it was a cool and healing experience to nail the vision for it. In 2008, Unbruja is another movie about a new life topic with the same actor, new costars, and the same director's cut. I always take my dementia into episodes were I can just hide away, either as a victim of a memory, as a passenger in a dream, or in a real-life scenario. This time, my life has gone through radical changes, so there are other untouched spectrums I never before dared or even cared to mirror and talk about. Each song is like an apocalypse soundtrack to the episodes reflecting my life right now. In this album, I play many characters; I am sometimes the dead boy, bitch boy, lover boy, wasted boy, murder boy, Satan boy, and even the good poltergeist boy. All my personalities get united, thirsty for more alter ego. The album name came naturally when I felt I needed to rescan reality. I was hooked into lots of conspiracy movies during the making of the album, so my Latin background inspired me to twist the words up. Unbruja is about getting deeper into lies and turning them into your own interpretation of truth. What I never do in this album is to be up front in any specific point or action. Each song is like a customizable template where the mind puts the colors and the landscapes to be judged in your desired way. There is always a reflection behind or in front of any shadow, so don't dare to believe all the shit you hear. Besides preaching, Unbruja is another personal milestone in the time line of my so-called human life.

The Damiana Error was produced and mixed by you using tools such as Reason and your laptop. What sorts of skills have you learned as a producer since that album, and how have you applied them to the production of Unbruja? How did your production methods differ on this album, and was there anybody else involved in this aspect of Unbruja? In other words, did you work with an outside producer this time, or was it still largely a self-made effort?

Frejrud: I worked for a long time on preproduction, experimenting with lots of ideas. This time, Martin helped to push ideas along for the album. He joined as a live guitarist in 2005, but we managed to mirror similar twisted tastes for music. He pulled out lots of track ideas and I took them further into production. Martin is a popcorn machine of ideas, so we had a cool time pushing them together. His input into Sexy Death has let me pull the trigger into more music arrangement and media production.

I decided to bring an album that would exercise to the limit our live performances, compared to what I done before. I went back this time to use more guitar and especially more bass work. I have a basic formula for Sexy Death music; I love synth/electro, industrial, and metal music, so this album is a purification of all those elements. We left many tracks behind when we started to select the play list for Unbruja. This time, I was not so interested in showcasing a wide diversity of music genres. I kept the ambiance inspired by old Godflesh and Big Black records when it came to the use of the drum machines. I will always belong to digital machines; that's really a personal fetish; even old Def Leppard drums make me, strangely enough, still want to murder.

I started working on the album in Stockholm in my apartment for several months in 2007, but before that, Martin and I had already a play list of around 25 track ideas. The hardest task was maybe not to create the album; it was more of a challenge giving a direction to all our ideas. I moved to Los Angeles for a while to finish the setup and mix for Unbruja. John Fryer (NIN, Depeche Mode) hooked us up through a common friend when I was working over there, so he did the pre-mix of four songs in his studio in Norway. We both worked on Logic Audio, so it was easy to arrange the setup of the sessions and FTP them back and forth. We also got started with Chris Vrenna (Tweaker, Marilyn Manson) to mix three songs, but we decided to push his collaboration further in time due to our album release deadline. Back in Sweden, I had magical hands from Ulf Östling (Candlemass, Iron Maiden), who did additional mixing on 'Lick Out the Pain' and 'Sins So Dirty.'

I killed the ego darling many times through the process, because I never had mixing the album in mind until the last minute. My vision differed sometimes from what I was looking for, so I ended up basically finishing the process myself with the awesome wisdom from these guys behind me. Compared to the other chapter of Sexy Death, I guess this new album took me where my senses today can take me, and also where my portable studio could guide me. I recorded the album through an MBox and a MacBook Pro into Logic and ProTools. Less is more, so all programming was done in Reason and NI Komplete, so it was a simple setup. I mastered the final digital EP version for Unbruja backstage at a show in Helsinki in April. It was a last minute thing, as we were supposed to release the digital album the same day. I couldn't find the proper intensity, so I mastered the tracks and uploaded them just an hour before the sound check. Unbruja became endless to finish, but a beginning for a new Sexy Death era because we left at least another album behind during the process.

This will be the last full album from Sexy Death for sure. We are going to work on another marketing concept for the future of our music. I believe in a calendar or seasonal release of tracks, rather than a two or four-year schedule. So there will be lots of Sexy Death in the future.

You'd stated at one point that 'Lick Out the Pain' and 'Sins So Dirty' are your favorite songs from the new album to perform live. What is it about these particular songs that you consider them your current live favorites? On a much broader note, what sorts of considerations go into performing the material live? Because there is a lot of synthesizer accompaniment and programming, how much does the sound change when transferring the music to a live environment?

Frejrud: These days, we are into rehearsals for the coming Unbruja season. Unbruja is conceptualized to be executed as a live album with our live band: Johan on drums, Pornoterror as DJ/VJ, and Goran on bass. I worked hard on getting that as my primary vision for the album. A song is like a pill for me; I take it, feel it, and travel from actions into emotions. 'Sins So Dirty' became a version of a song I had many years back, so it's always a pleasure to put fire into the dead remains of my primitive consciousness. 'Smells Like Dystopia' was perhaps one of the first guitar riffs I managed to pin down like 10 years ago. There are many songs and ideas here with me again in this album. 'Lick Out the Pain' was initially a Martin version that just sounded like all the music I grew up with that I used to fucking hate, so I took it into a paradigm where I made it a pain song, hate song, and a lick song all at the same time. 'Bitter Hollow,' the last song and perhaps the slowest track on the album, seems to unleash black power into the room every time we perform it. It's just such a pleasure to preach. Personally, I feel I made a professional choice with the track selection for the live set-up. Unbruja is a live album, and we are for sure going to have an awesome season working on it.

In the press kit for The Damiana Error, you made several allusions to the '80s, stating 'I don't belong to the future, I belong to the past' and ''80s disco must fucking die,' along with covers of Michael Sambello's 'She's a Maniac' and Prince's 'Little Red Corvette' on the Web site. As many popular bands today are going back to the '80s, incorporating synthesizers and pop melodies from that time, what are your thoughts on this phenomenon? In other words, what is it about the '80s that holds such a special appeal for groups like Sexy Death?

Frejrud: The Damiana Error five years ago was a healing process for me, puzzling back the days when music used to excite me. Today, with Unbruja, I still hook lots of old records and soundcapes that still make me trip. The next album will take me even further away, with or without machines, synths or vocals. I don't want to know. Today, the music industry has gotten so flattened and naked that it needs to look back to get reinvented. That's maybe why we hear old heroes yelling back from the grave, inspiring new bands all the time. I stopped listening to modern music many years ago, when I got the tools to explore music and make it myself. I guess what is happening these days is a rebirth of a new youth that hasn't heard music from back in the day. Every day there is a new mutated virus infecting a new generation of kids, either as a lifestyle or as a new musical genre. It's part of our evolution and nature to breed the future with the wisdom from the past. This simple system has been applied in the media industry since the early beginning. When I did covers like 'She's a Maniac' and the tributes to U2 and Prince for Cleopatra Records, I really wanted to push an adaptation of soundscapes, mostly as a personal experimental task. Then some labels took the commercial aspect of it, and that's why they got interested in Sexy Death. I signed to a major label back in the day because of 'She's a Maniac,' though luckily enough, I never made any effort to push my musical career through cover versions. That's why I never did any videos or extended any promotion for those versions; it would for sure gain lots of traffic, but it's also a slow and painful suicide. I still stand for that: '80s disco must fucking die—all dead genres that are turned back into blurriness should fucking die before they kill us all over again.

One aspect to Unbruja is an improved sense of melody, particularly in your vocals. Tell us, how did you adjust your approach to the vocals on this album versus that of The Damiana Error? Did you make a conscious effort to pay special attention to them, or was it more of a natural progression of your style?

Frejrud: I tried to devour more the lyrical aspect rather than the musical tourism into diversity of style. I can easily escape away in a song with a synth line, a guitar riff or a beat. With Sexy Death live, I never play any instruments, because I hate to stand still. I wanted songs I could relate to lyrically and emotionally, rather than just musically. In other words, Unbruja is a dark pop album with heavy motherfucking guitars. You can still dance to it and want to do nasty, beautiful things to it.

In several of your songs from both albums, you've included lyrics pertaining to sin, sex, and the number 666, which brings up the question as to Sexy Death's religious affiliation. Is there any sort of Satanic or religious subtext to your lyrical themes, and if so, what are you trying to convey to your audience?

Frejrud: I never have been into religion or mythology, really. I find mankind in these days to be just far too intelligent for such a primitive bullshit. The old spiritual tools we have been using to heal and for guidance are just not effective anymore, especially in these days with such free access to information. I did grow up surrounded by many cultures and ideologies. I respect them, but I don't agree with them. I spent lots of time in South America, so my thirst for the forbidden comes perhaps by a reflection of those years. Mankind needs guidance, that's for sure: the only true fact. Our minds and beliefs are just like operative fucking systems; some work good on Linux, some work great on Leopard, some others can only operate in shitty Windows. What surprises me is that some people still only want to fucking operate in DOS and deny the awareness and potential of the rest. With Sexy Death, sometimes I use metaphors that might mirror ourselves out or back in from a path. I believe that we are free to believe whatever we want to believe, as long as the belief doesn't make us a prisoner. But Sexy Death isn't about politics, mass control, or trying to play the entertainment industry game through controversy. I've always been into explicit imagery. What makes us fear visually is what we usually respect and learn to deny. What it means today is not what it will mean tomorrow, or is not what it has meant. That's how I see things. Satan, the swastika, God, voodoo, spirits, vampires, angels, Spiderman and fucking Superman are all just products created by us in order to control and entertain ourselves. I still find the swastika to be the coolest design for a logo. Lucky will be the man of another civilization in the future who can reuse it, when the fears and memories have been formatted out from mankind. I hope that the next time it gets used, it brands something wise, fearless, harmless, and long-lasting. We are like atoms; we work in chemistry with some, and we are dysfunctional with other combinations. I love the black and I hate the white. I was always the bizarre kid that grew up in a twist of cultures. I never felt like I belonged anywhere. I hated the sun as a kid, because it felt like it was going to melt down. I hated sports, and I still fucking do, because they didn't make me think. I loved horror and sick movies because they took me out from the shit and made me feel identified. I got into dance music because the girls loved to dance, and than I could maybe have the chance to fuck. I discovered the pleasures of drugs before I discovered the pleasures of sex, maybe because I am also a proud Colombian. I always looked like a girl and dressed like a girl, because they were so pretty and I wanted to understand them, to be able to get with them and fuck them. I grew up feeling so frustrated and so fucking bored that I took the music and technology as an exit, really. My chosen lifestyle is a purification and glorification of my recollected personalities. With Sexy Death, I love to tell dirty stories from the dark where we have all been: sexy, Satanic, pagan, killers, sinners, fuckers, and lovers. I try to feed the temple of my mind with all the wisdom I can find, and that's the only way to realize my own path. Sexy Death is my tool. My advice to my audience is to hook up any kind of art or expression and publish your own story. Blog it, yell it, paint it, upload it, and feel it. Your mind is the only weapon you need for guidance.

On The Damiana Error, you can be seen using ESP guitars in the videos for 'Deathlicious' and 'Telepathic Sex with the Machine.' Now for Unbruja, you've signed on with Gibson guitars. Why the change?

Frejrud: Yeah, I hooked up a Gibson endorsement at the early beginning of the making of the album; they became truly partners in crime this time. That's also the reason why I ended up having a more guitar-driven album, rather than electro or industrial. My roots were guitars before machines, and I never had the chance in The Damiana Error to bring real life into the guitars, so this time I wanted to just enjoy the process of recording. Martin did all his guitar work on ESP LTD to be honest. We still go with LTD baritones live, but Gibsons are for me the real sexy bitches in guitars, so yeah, I haven't really thought about it. But we just love them and will keep being faithful to them.

Besides the music, you've also done the filming/editing for your videos. How did you first get started as a filmmaker, and do you have any plans to pursue it outside of music videos? In other words, do you have any hopes or plans to make a cinematic feature? And on the subject of music videos, since you've done your own, is it a possibility that you'll be doing the same for other groups, or is that not something you're interested in?

Frejrud: The development of Unbruja has not ended really for me. I need to take care of the media aspect of Sexy Death as well. When I am done with a new piece of art, I move on to take care of everything behind the Sexy Death media brand. My visual and media aspect came before music, I guess, so it's very intimate and obvious for me to put my hands into the media and Web direction as well. It's at least as important as the music. Video editing and design is something I really love to do. When you cut an audio wave, it's always a bitch to sync or modify. A video frame allows another freedom, and design another expression. I've done all my videos for Sexy Death on my laptops and sometimes I fuck up the vision for other bands and friends. In video work and music production, I might one day spend more time, that's for sure. But I am afraid to jump into another project and disappear for another five years with Sexy Death. I spent the past three years co-founding and pushing www.trig.com. But I will be focusing really hard on Sexy Death in the coming season, because there are still many dirty things left to do with Sexy Death here in heaven before I go to hell.